Restoring the Rule of Law, former Vice-President Al Gore, January 16, 2006 . Excerpt: A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the structure of government they [...]

Senate leaders announced late Monday that a US Senate Judiciary Committee vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito which could have taken place as early as Tuesday will be postponed by a week until January 24, with consideration by the full Senate to follow immediately afterwards. Ranking Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy said [...]

In a scathing and fiery speech in Washington Monday on eavesdropping and excesses of executive power, former Vice-President and 2000 Democratic Party nominee Al Gore declared that the US Constitution was in "grave danger" and accused President Bush of repeatedly breaking the law by authorizing warrantless wiretaps on domestic communications. Gore said that the "disrespect [...]

A Bangladesh court Monday sentenced a member of the outlawed Islamist militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen to 15 years in prison for involvement in a wave of bomb attacks across the country on August 17 last year that killed 2 and wounded 100. The group wants to turn Bangladesh , now the third most populated Muslim country [...]

Human rights groups Monday voiced objections to Sudan President Omar al-Bashir becoming the rotating chair of the African Union for 2006-2007 when African nations hold a summit in Khartoum next week. In a letter to African leaders, a coalition of 50 groups expressed concern about Bashir shaping the peace progress in the violence-wracked Darfur region [...]

The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) announced Monday that it would disregard 227 ballot boxes from the December 15 parliamentary elections in response to 58 serious complaints of election fraud . Since Iraqis voted at about 6,200 voting centers across the country with an average of 5 ballot boxes each, the 227 boxes to [...]

A replacement judge has been named to preside over the Iraqi High Criminal Court ] trying ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein following the weekend resignation of chief judge Rizgar Amin , according to the court's chief prosecutor speaking Monday. Amin deputy Sayeed al-Hamashi will take over the next session of the Hussein trial scheduled for [...]

The European Commission is urging the 25 European Union member states to implement compatible criminal law procedures in the wake of a study showing drastically different legal practices. While the study conducted by the University of Maastricht did not reveal any violations of the European Human Rights Convention , it highlighted the fact that EU [...]

Under pressure from the United States, the Israeli Cabinet led by Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided to allow Palestinians to vote in Jerusalem during the January 25 Palestinian parliamentary elections so long as militant groups are not on the ballot. Israel had threatened to bar the residents of east Jerusalem from voting locally [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law says that the memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) calls us from complacency and careerism to act against injustice and help the poor and the oppressed, both in this country and abroad… I thank JURIST for this opportunity [...]